My kid is on vacation. This morning she found a bed bug on her pillow! Yikes!
She and her friend caught it and called the front desk to inspect the room. When they got back to their room, housekeeping had overturned the mattresses on top of their clothes and personal belongings. But the hotel claimed that they found no other evidence of bed bugs other than the lone one in the room. Which I think the hotel might have claimed could have come from somewhere else.
The hotel moved them to another room and after the kids complained, they are going to treat their belongings and inspect the new room. And they were comped for half of their stay.
What else should be done? I looked and am thinking that kid should not bring her suitcase into her apartment (which sadly does not have laundry facilities). I think but am not sure that the airline broke her suitcase, so I’m thinking she should throw away the suitcase?
Kid did say that she is having a great time! Thanks
Do not bring the suitcase or any contents into the apartment. Not only that, if I were her I wouldn’t wear my clothes into the apartment either. On the way home stop at Walmart and buy cheap new clothes and the huge sealable ziploc bags, strip at door, leave potentially bedbug ridden clothing and shoes outside with luggage.
Immediately put all dirty clothes, suitcases, shoes, everything into the sealable ziplocs and leave outside until she can sterilize.
BTW, washing doesn’t kill bedbugs, only heat does. So sterilizing the luggage and clothing will be a bigger deal than just washing it.
If things go in the dryer for long enough and the dryer is hot enough - yes. Not all dryer settings are hot enough to kill bedbugs, so it’s worth checking.
We live in Florida, so it’s normally warm year round. When we get back from any travel, I immediately sort and wash any clothes, leaving them outside until they’ve been through the dryer. I also bag the luggage and shoes in black garbage bags and let them sit for several hours in the full sun on the driveway.
Won’t help your D, but a coworker who travels 75% of the time always puts his luggage into the bathtub when he arrives at a new hotel and only removes it after he has inspected the room for bedbugs.
My next door neighbors just had to have their house tented for bedbugs the husband brought home from a business trip. He vows to put his suitcase in the bathtub going forward… I haven’t asked him what happens when he needs to take a shower!
Bedbugs are amazing! They can live for 18 months without feeding, so very hard to kill. Fortunately, they don’t carry diseases, or humanity would have died off long ago. Both D and S have had bed bugs in their apartments. We have spent thousands treating the apartments we own. They are a nightmare. She should keep a sharp eye out in her apartment for at least a month. The eggs are tiny and hard to see, so if there are any in her stuff now, it can take weeks for them to materialize in a noticeable form.
Bed bugs also hide in the honey comb of cardboard boxes. You may think you have them taken care of, then have another outbreak just because they were hiding in boxes then came out. So, it is best to get rid of your boxes and use rubbermaid type totes instead.
Oldest had bed bugs in her first apartment. The bites are in threes. All her clothes had to be bagged, washed in hot water and dried. Both the mattress and box springs were fully enclosed in plastic. She placed the wheels of the bed frame in containers with green tea oil. The landlord treated the apartment 3 times in a month and she hasn’t had any more bed bugs since then, years later.
I breathe filtered air through an external ventilator at night. So when I brought them home from a resort I put diatomaceous earth all around me on the bed so that they would crawl through it and die. I also put it on the floor by my bedroom door. I ran all my clothes through the dryer before leaving the house in the morning. The bed bugs never got into the rest of the house.
Ewww, I’m getting itchy! OP, sorry for your D. They can happen anywhere, but glad Hotel was responsive. Good luck!
My sis had them—brought them home from a hotel. They stayed on her side of the bed—never went to her H’s side. They had a company come and treat their house. As far as I know she never contacted the hotel because she didn’t find them until returning home.
